More jobs for STEM graduates who make technology than for those who use it

For recent graduates in Math and Computing unemployment is low for specialists who can write software and invent new applications (6%), but still comparatively high (11.2 percent) for those who use software to manipulate, mine and disseminate information.

The lower unemployment figure is for computer science and mathematics majors, and the higher one is for information systems majors. All STEM majors are not created equal.

UPDATE: After reading Bonnie’s comment, I changed the post title from For job security it’s better to make technology than to use it to More jobs for STEM graduates who make technology than for those who use it. “Job security” was a poor choice of words, given the cyclical nature of this industry. In fact, the report predicted a recovery for information systems workers as the economy recovers. The truth is that economic fluctuations affect all our jobs, although some are more cyclical than others.

Regarding the inclusion of IS in the STEM category – I actually found this in many places after looking because I had this question myself. I guess there are differing opinions and inconsistencies about this.

“Information Systems Management” is in the college of engineering at UCSC, but most of the rest of the school of engineering sees it as not “really” an engineering major. There are some aspects of it that are engineering (optimization theory), but a lot that is not. Even so, a lot of ISM majors fail out to “Business Management Economics”.

From your descriptions, it seems that the above chart is about as good as it can be in illustrating how these various areas relate to each other. I’ve heard that industrial engineering is another major that can vary in a similar way, and sometimes not considered “real” engineering.

Hmmm, I’d say industrial engineering and systems are almost opposites. In my experience, industrial engineering tends to be design & drawing, systems is adamantly not that. But, perhaps the terms are migrating.

I’m a mech e, with area of concentration in control systems (though, my research was in biomechanics). The industrial engineers I’ve known have ranged from draftspeople to very talented designers who focus on melding form and function. For the top level, one could think of them as systems people, I guess, since they think about integrating the parts into the overall result. But, their integration is based more on visual aspects and physical form than what I think of as systems integration.

I suspect this is one of those areas where the term means different things coming from different institutions.